...birds, reptiles, and men were all mere divergent descendants of a single similar original form, and even that ' one and the same kind of living filament is and has been the cause of organic life.' The eighteenth century laughed, of course. It always laughed at all reformers. It said...

...simply all of history. —LYNN MARGULIS. The SymbioticPlanet 13 THAT FIRST SPARK Shall we conjecture that one and the same kind of living filament is and has been the cause of all organic life? — ERASMUS DARWIN, Zoanomia (1794) ON SUNDAY, February 12, 2001, two rival organizations, one privately...

...the Origin ofSociety (1803) that life began by “spontaneous birth” and, in Zoonomia (1794—6), that “one and the same kind of living filament is and has been the cause of all organic life.” Perhaps, Byron and Percy Shelley speculated, if “the principal of life” could be identified, then...

...did suggest that all species had originated from the same ancestor; as he noted, "Shall we conjecture that one and the same kind of living filament is and has been the cause of all organic life? Would it be too bold to imagine, that in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps...